Nadiia Mykolaienko

REBUFF 10/10. HOW UKRAINIAN CULTURE DEFEATS RUSSIAN MISSILES

On the morning of October 10, editor Yury Marchenko was supposed to be running through Shevchenko Park, near his home, at the same time as the Russian rockets hit it. One of them — to the playground, the other — to the intersection of Shevchenko Boulevard and Volodymyrska Street. The blast wave damaged "strategic" objects: museums, educational institutions, restaurants, galleries, hospitals, the Ministry of Education, the Teacher's House and the protective structure around the monument to Mykhailo Hrushevskyi. We are looking for an answer not only with Yuriy Marchenko, but also with volunteer Serhii Prytula, architect Slava Balbek, historian Oleksandr Palii, military expert Serhii Kuzan, deputy director of the National Science and Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences Oksana Chervonenko and director of the Khanenko Museum Yulia Vaganova.

Smoldering. Tree of Life

A story about Ukrainian monumental art of the Soviet period in Mariupol. Photographer Stanislav Ivanov lived in Mariupol all his life. He studied history, streets, houses, monumental art. Some of the mosaics are more than half a century old. The "Tree of Life" panel - created by a team of artists led by Alla Gorska and Viktor Zaretsky - was bricked up after the death of the artist and reopened in 2008. This and other stories were collected by Stanislav Ivanov and art critic Oleksandr Chernov in the album "All Shades of Mariupol Mosaics". After February 24, 2022, the mosaicists, like hundreds of thousands of residents of Mariupol, became hostages of the occupying forces of the Russian Federation. In the film, we are transported to peaceful Mariupol in December 2021 and, together with Stanislav, explore the city and its mosaics, transported to a place where time and the elements seemed to be the greatest threats.

Smoldering. Tree of Life

A story about Ukrainian monumental art of the Soviet period in Mariupol. Photographer Stanislav Ivanov lived in Mariupol all his life. He studied history, streets, houses, monumental art. Some of the mosaics are more than half a century old. The "Tree of Life" panel - created by a team of artists led by Alla Gorska and Viktor Zaretsky - was bricked up after the death of the artist and reopened in 2008. This and other stories were collected by Stanislav Ivanov and art critic Oleksandr Chernov in the album "All Shades of Mariupol Mosaics". After February 24, 2022, the mosaicists, like hundreds of thousands of residents of Mariupol, became hostages of the occupying forces of the Russian Federation. In the film, we are transported to peaceful Mariupol in December 2021 and, together with Stanislav, explore the city and its mosaics, transported to a place where time and the elements seemed to be the greatest threats.

Fighting with music: the history of the Luhansk Philharmonic Orchestra

Gathering together dozens of his musicians, providing them with housing and work in Lviv, organising the evacuation of instruments from under fire, and continuing to perform: this is the second time that the director of the Luhansk Philharmonic, Ihor Shapovalov, has revived the orchestra. Back in 2015, after being rescued from Luhansk, Sievierodonetsk became his home. In seven years, Igor has managed not only to staff the orchestra, but also to establish links with orchestras from Europe and different parts of Ukraine, and to show that Luhansk region has always been, is and will be Ukrainian. Today, the battle for Sievierodonetsk is ongoing, and Russia's large-scale invasion is putting the musicians in front of new challenges. But they remember why it is worth taking to the stage again and again, to spread Ukrainian and European culture.

Soft power. Move Europe

Director, choreographer, actress, singer – the usual professional roles for the heroines of this film stopped working at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Like millions of Ukrainian men and women, who were saving themselves and their loved ones and volunteering. Creative pursuits returned later, but now in a new dimension. Iryna, Olena, Oksana, and Maryna became the voices that tell the world about Ukrainians, their culture and their struggle for freedom. But how can one be heard in a world where Russian propaganda has been spread for centuries?

Soft power. Move Europe

Director, choreographer, actress, singer – the usual professional roles for the heroines of this film stopped working at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Like millions of Ukrainian men and women, who were saving themselves and their loved ones and volunteering. Creative pursuits returned later, but now in a new dimension. Iryna, Olena, Oksana, and Maryna became the voices that tell the world about Ukrainians, their culture and their struggle for freedom. But how can one be heard in a world where Russian propaganda has been spread for centuries?

Smoldering. To Be a Formalist

In an effort to perpetuate its ideology, the Soviet authorities filled the cities and villages of Ukraine with propaganda sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics. Over time, the style of some authors transformed from realism to formalism. But they still had to balance between the fulfillment of the party's order and the embodiment of universal plots. The majestic works of one of the monumental artists Ivan Lytovchenko are now slowly being destroyed under the influence of forces of nature and radiation on the buildings of the once young and flourishing, but now abandoned city of Prypiat. Numerous works and other authors of the past century still shape the space of Ukrainian cities and villages. What is it like to be a formalist artist in a totalitarian system? Does the monumental legacy of the Soviet Union have the right to be preserved in today's independent Ukraine?